Remember Nintendo's bold new vision for sports games on Wii U, shown off at E3 last year? It's dead serious about making it a reality, applying for a patent on its concept for golf.

The patent pertains to using the new controller on the ground to see the lie of the ball, but it goes into more detail, revealing it's possible to 'miss' the ball entirely if your aim is off. If you succeed in striking the ball, the speed of your swing and angle of the club face are used to calculate the ball's trajectory. You know, like in normal Wii golf games.

Referring to existing golf set ups, the application says:

There is room for improvement in terms of providing a realistic game that feels as if the player was playing actual golf.

If Nintendo is granted this patent it could force other developers to adopt different uses for the second screen, but we can't think of many better ideas than a view of a golf ball. Can you?